The Fir Park Potato Patch

At what point does Motherwell's pitch become unfit for purpose?

I've not been the biggest admirer of High Definition TV so far, but I saw the second half of Well's clash with Celtic yesterday whilst having lunch at my parents' place, and their lush screen showed the Fir Park surface in detail that my cheap Panasonic box just can't match.

Watching the first 45 minutes on my own telly, I thought the surface looked abysmal enough. On HD it became apparent that the players would have been better off playing in a ploughed field. The only "grass" in the stadium on Sunday afternoon would have been in small stashes in young mens' pockets, for a celebratory joint after the game. Motherwell suffered from the conditions last midweek when St. Mirren's winning goal took a freak bounce off a divot and flew over their prostrate keeper; this weekend they benefitted as Celtic failed to get out of second gear.

But it has been a problem for three years now - in the summer of 2009 they spent £350,000 on trying to fix it, yet within six months it was wrecked again. Out came the excuses - the poor weather, the constant need for undersoil heating - and when they were fined in August 2010, it was only £5,000, with another £40,000 suspended. One suspects the remainder of the fine might be called in pretty soon. They relaid the whole pitch...again...at the end of last season (another 100 grand down the drain) and lo and behold, by winter it again has more craters than the face of a pimpled teenager.

I have no idea what the solution is, but you simply can't keep playing on a pitch that only lasts half a season...and Motherwell surely can't afford to fork out a six figure sum for repair every summer.

That said, maybe I will have to come down from the moral high ground soon enough - there was an under 20s rugby international at Inverness on Friday night, which will not have been kind to our grass either.

L.